IndianRingNeck.com

I purchased an indian ring neck in August of 2004. We were told that he was 8 months old, but when we got him home by the date on his leg ring he was only 5 months old. He is a beautiful bird, and does a perfect wolf whistle.
He will take food from your hand, and if he is out of his cage when we are eating, he will come and pinch some food.
I have a problem when I try to get him to come on my hand, he just squawks and tries to bite.
I talk to him as much as I can, and he seems to have taken a shine to me. He is covered up at night, and in the morning will pull a corner of his cover back. When I say hello to him, he gives an excited squawk. When I completely remove his cover, he arches his back, holds his head up, and starts making this weird noise like his beak is grinding together. Every time I talk to him, he gets excited. He is such a lovely bird, but so wild. Can he be tamed and how.

Hello,
And welcome to the board! I have a similar problem with one of my irns. She's not that tame. But with a lot of work and a lot of patience she's coming around! VERY SLOWLY! Takes a lot of hard work. Check out the irn behaviors and taming. There should be some posts about taming them down. Keep asking questions!

welcome to the family.

I too brought an IRN as an older, flighted aviary bird (11 months old when I brought him home).

We have had him 8 months now and with slow, constant persistence we now have a wonderfully tame bird in every respect except he will not let you pet him, except for rubbing his beak, (but we are working on that).

You have to be brave and push past the lunge when you try to step him up. Try and distract him with a treat (beak full). Be firm with your voice when you command him to step up so he knows you are boss. You might take a few bites at first, most of us have, but don't pull away if this happens, take the bite and push firmly past it and MAKE him step up. Most of the time you will find his lunge is alot of bluff.

Kai had my husband totally bluffed, by screaching loudly and lunging or even flapping at him as he screached. Hubby would have given up as Kai just doens't like him. Until I forced my hubby to force kai to step up and not be scared of the lunge. Guess what, kai was just bluffing and guess what, Hubby can make kai step up every time from that first time onwards. They are now best buddies and get up to heaps of mischeif together behind my back.. lol.

It wont take long once you take a firm dominant approach to it.

good luck and remember to use the search above to search for past topics on the subject. I know we have all written pretty much full essays on all of this, in our posts in the past.

Cheers !

hi and welcome. it also helps to keep the wings clipped so they depend on you more.

I disagree with wing clipping for the sole purpose of taming. you need to earn your birds trust. Time and patience will help you the most.

Baby has never bluffed... if that beak opens, someones getting biten.

She dont play and aint here to please.

Opal is just over a year. Cinnamon Ring Neck. She/He don't really know yet is beautiful. She can be a doll and she can be a beast. I call her Dr. Jeckyl and Miss Hyde. Lately, she is Miss Hyde. The last two days we have moved from beak marks to torn flesh. I have read through the various comments and issues around biting and bluffing. In any case, I know it is something I have to work through, but I have a question. What are your thoughts on using gloves. My breeder went to a seminar and they recommended deerskin gloves. Any thougths?

If your hands are being torn to bits, give it a try. But your own hands are probably better. I guess it depends on how they react to gloves. I think my birds would have spazzed out if we had have come at them with gloves.. but I have heard some success stories.

Welcome to u and ur baby. Natalie xxx

Hi and welcome to the board!!!

I have jsut brought home a cute baby IRN and he's not tame either. But we work on i. At the moment I just let him out the cage everyday to explore the room and me. I've brought my (s)laptop out in the livingroom to keep him company. Don't want to push him to quick.

the other day I had Mini (my female tiel) att my shoulder in her flightsuit. She was biting on my glasses and Jia was sooooo curious!! He came to my head. Bit me in my ear (he didn't se that Mini was biting my glasses) but I forgave him that. I was soooo happy!

Just be patient!! Some beautiful day your IRN will accept your hand. Give him time. And good luck

Welcome...Jen and our Mikaela know all about taming an IRN so do ask them...

Dani and Prinny

Thank you everyone for your tips on taming my bird. I shall certainly give them a go. He is so beautiful that I just want to pet him but he won't let me near him to do it. I hope with a lot more time and patience I can win him round.
I also have a budgie called Elvis of 10 years of age. He copies some of the noises Jasper makes which is so funny. I have to watch them together though as Jasper tries to attack Elvis when he lands on his cage. Elvis loves him but I don't think Jasper feels the same.
As soon as I can get a photo taken of Jasper, I will post it. He is a gorgeous blue, with a turqoise blue ring round the back of his neck, and grey round the front.

*waves her hands* me too .. hello

You gotta solve the step-up behavior and get your fid to step-up the way you want it done on your command. And the only way to do that is to drill, drill, drill, and then do some more drills for behavioral reinforcement. Oh you gotta take some bite hits too...but not such that your fingers are ripped up.

If you're getting too ripped up then you might try using a good solid perch before using your fingers. Angie summed it up.

Best of luck.